Mining machinery manufacturers from Germany are pleased about an increase in incoming orders. The manufacturers invest a lot in future technologies, especially ongoing automation and digitization. VDMA Mining uses international conferences to get together with users and research institutes and to support the positive trend.

In 2014, the State Dam Administration of Saxony (LTV) in Germany used geotextile dewatering tubes for the first time in the removal of sludge from a flood-retention reservoir. The article explains the dewatering method and its use for the Radeburg reservoir near Dresden

3D surveys with mobile LIDAR and photogrammetric systems facilitate profile analyses, localisation of weak points and the detection of deformations at dam structures. The article examines innovative measurements and analyses and the utilisation of the results for stability investigations taking the example of the Alfhausen-Rieste flood control reservoir in Lower Saxony.

In October 2017 the mark of 10,000 kJ of impact energy in rockfall protection has been broken. At the Geobrugg test site a 30-meter-long and 7-meter-high net installed on a rock wall stopped the impact energy of a 25-ton concrete block.

In Istanbul solutions for urban transportation are urgently needed and actually 30 to 40 km metro lines are under construction The Canadian-Chinese Lovsuns Tunneling Canada Ltd. is successful to deliver eight more TBMs for two metro projects.

Measures to secure the inner lining reinforcement can be necessary in special cases in trenchless tunnels with geomembranes. This report introduces innovative anchors jointly devised by the Meese GmbH and the Naue Sealing GmbH & Co. KG, which avoid penetrations of the seal and constraints. They have already been used successfully in practice.

Cutting excavation techniques coupled with methods designed to preweaken hard rock can represent the key for the economic continuous extraction of some of the world’s most valuable raw material resources. At the Rock Cutting Centre at Aachen University (RWTH) hard rock samples were preweakened with high-pressure water jets and subsequently investigated using modern cutting concepts to establish their cutting technological implications.

This two-part article gives an overview on the global markets for solid minerals resources, including the main demand parameters, reserves and production figures, supplying countries and producers, economic realities, influence of product quality, geopolitical issues and future trends. This Part 1 is especially dealing with the prominent role of China and other Asia in the resources industry, general information on the markets of major commodities, energy supply, including renewables and the future role of coal in power production and steel industry.

For mining in hard materials with a compressive strength of up to 50 MPa, Thyssenkrupp has developed the Barracuda bucket wheel excavator. With an improved steel structure and innovative bucket wheel the field of application of bucket wheel excavators is widened from digging only to cutting and digging. It thus bears a huge potential for a step change and to reach considerable improvements and cost reductions in mining operations. This article explains the potential.

The Deilmann-Haniel GmbH has been commissioned by the Slavkaliy GmbH to sink two freeze shafts each roughly 750 m for the new Nezhinsky facility to the south of Minsk in Belarus. The annual output is planned to be around 1.1 to 1.2 million tonnes of potassium chloride. Both shafts are to be sunk by Shaft Boring Roadheaders (SBRs). German, Belarusian and Russian workers will be employed.

Industries attribute major importance to the durability and reliability of pipelines including the flange joints. Existing methods of flange joint calculations and neglected factors are discussed. Improvements are proposed particularly with regard to the applicability of the finite element method.